by Dr. Larry Ollison, Ph.D. 

         
Picture this. A young man is walking down a dark street when he is approached by a large, mean-looking man who will not let him pass. The young man isn't quite as physically fit as he should be because he hasn't been exercising or working out. The young man, seeing that he is no match for the attacker, says, "Excuse me just one moment while I go home and work out with my weight set. Stay right here. Don't move. I'll be right back. Then we will fight." At this point the young man runs home, works out on his weights for 10 minutes and then goes back to the dimly lit street and fights the attacker. He wins because of his ten-minute workout.

It sounds silly, doesn't it? But that's the way many Christians try to live their lives spiritually. They wait until Satan attacks and then at the last minute try to exercise spiritually by reading a few verses and praying under pressure. Any time a person reads God's Word and applies it to his life, it is good, but usually when the man stops you in the alley or Satan attacks your home, it's too late to exercise your body or your faith. 

If our spiritual muscles aren't built up before the attack, we may find the attack more than we had expected. Be prepared. Build your faith daily. Then when the attack comes, your shield of faith will protect you. 

So here’s the point. We must walk by faith each and every day. We cannot live like the world six days a week and then put in our two hours and two dollars on Sunday and expect that to be our faith.

Walking by faith is a lifestyle. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Everything we do, everything we seek to accomplish, each day is to be in faith.

A few years ago, a friend of mind was facing a disaster in his life. He was at the end of his rope and didn’t know where to turn. He had tried everything except God, but now he was desperate. He would try anything to get out of the jam he was in. He wanted me to tell him how to pray to God and how to get his prayers answered. 

Even though this man was a Christian, he always tried to solve everything in his life by his own power. I knew that in order for him to be helped, he needed some straight forward teaching and needed to be shown these teachings in the Word. 

I showed him that according to James 1:6, we must pray in faith if we expect to receive anything from God. I told him that when we pray according to God’s Word, we must believe and expect God to answer our requests.

A few weeks went by and I ran into this man at a local store. When I asked him how things were going, he made an all too common statement. He said, ”Well, I tried praying in faith, but it didn’t work. Somehow I knew before I even prayed it wouldn’t and I guess I was right.”

Well, you don’t try faith. When we say we will try faith, we are admitting that there is a chance our prayers won’t be answered. When we believe there is a chance our prayers won’t be answered, there is doubt. Where there is doubt there is no faith. Where there is no faith, God is restricted by His Own Word.